gloves are a no-no...but what do you do to keep splinters out of your fingers/hands?

[Flynth]

So in *my* shop, with *my* set of safety protocols, I always use gloves when using the lathe. No, not nitrile ones, but real, skin fitting kevlar gloves with very thin gripping surfaces. (the cut resistant variety)

--- now before you guys blast me about OSHA, all safety protocols are a complete system with compromises and assumed risks and mitigated risks. I have written exception protocols for OSHA Alberta, so I've had to write in these kinds of things...

IF:
1) you NEVER have your hands closer than 6" from any moving part, and keep your hands 12" away for normal operation
1a) Your lathe files are always used left hand and are more than 14" long in OAL
2) your shut off on the lathe cannot be restarted with one hand in one operation with the other hand near the rotating parts
2a) My lathe has a start button on the headstock and then needs the lever on the carriage to start the spindle, which is more than 24" from the chuck... (yes I suppose I could touch the chuck with my left hand, but that is usually on the carriage handle)
3) the glove is a close fitting one that does not have any extra 'floppy material than can get stuck in things, I.E. like a nitrile or stretch glove that needs hand-proximity to catch.

... only then can I see using gloves on my lathe, nitrile or not.

This! I've tried working without gloves. I hated how my hands looked after. I don't really have issues with splinters that often (maybe once every few shop days), but my skin reacts badly with oils and greases. Then there are all the little nicks one gets when putting one's hands in a gearbox to pull/put something in.

So now, I always wear gloves. The only exception is when I have to put my hands near the spindle. For example lathe filing, or touching cutter on the work.

I tried nitrile gloves, there are dirty jobs I have to wear them for (swapping a cv joint in a car). I love them until I take them off and my hands look like they were underwater for last few hours...

For anyone with the same issue nitrile gloves work really well if you put super thin cosmetic white cotton gloves underneath. These are cosmetic gloves because they're used in various cosmetic procedures. The only problem with these is the cost. They cost like $1 a pair. While nitrile gloves cost $13 for a pack of 100.

Also I recommend to have various types of gloves. I haven't tried washing them yet, but I might. I have a verh nice set of leather assembly gloves, which I don't use because I'm afraid of making them dirty :-/ it would be much better if I found a way to clean them.

Speaking of eyes, all of us who make chips should get a head x-ray to look for slivers in the eyes before having any MRI procedure done.
View attachment 441206

Oh boy, definitely!

I wear glasses so I have some eye protection. I tend to put a face shield on when doing grinding etc. I never found safety glasses that can go over normal glasses and not fog up unfortunately.

 

[rwdenney]

I’m getting new glasses this year, and will have a pair of prescription safety glasses made at the same time.

Old mechanic experience:

I can’t work in gloves, except when I’m welding or washing parts, and even then they annoy me. My hands are very large and the gloves make it impossible to feel what I’m doing—often my hands block my view and are fitting in places designed for much smaller hands. Yes, my hands get dirty. I do not brush swarf away with my fingers—I can show you two impressive scars that taught me that lesson. If a paint brush won’t brush it away, neither will your fingers.

The best thing for cleaning hands is the blue fiberglass “horsehair” air-conditioning filter material. I buy 6”x50-foot rolls of the stuff from McMaster, and cut off 6” squares to use as hand scrubbies. Combined with Dawn dish detergent, even stubborn grease comes off surprisingly well. It will not abrade the skin like dish scrubbies.

Rick “who does wear nitrile gloves when packing bearings and CV joints with moly-disulfide grease, however” Denney

 

[woodchucker]

This! I've tried working without gloves. I hated how my hands looked after. I don't really have issues with splinters that often (maybe once every few shop days), but my skin reacts badly with oils and greases. Then there are all the little nicks one gets when putting one's hands in a gearbox to pull/put something in.

So now, I always wear gloves. The only exception is when I have to put my hands near the spindle. For example lathe filing, or touching cutter on the work.

I tried nitrile gloves, there are dirty jobs I have to wear them for (swapping a cv joint in a car). I love them until I take them off and my hands look like they were underwater for last few hours...

For anyone with the same issue nitrile gloves work really well if you put super thin cosmetic white cotton gloves underneath. These are cosmetic gloves because they're used in various cosmetic procedures. The only problem with these is the cost. They cost like $1 a pair. While nitrile gloves cost $13 for a pack of 100.

Also I recommend to have various types of gloves. I haven't tried washing them yet, but I might. I have a verh nice set of leather assembly gloves, which I don't use because I'm afraid of making them dirty :-/ it would be much better if I found a way to clean them.

Oh boy, definitely!

I wear glasses so I have some eye protection. I tend to put a face shield on when doing grinding etc. I never found safety glasses that can go over normal glasses and not fog up unfortunately.

When you wear prescription, you should order prescription safety glasses. While you can spend lots, you can also try the online cheaper alternatives, for the price, you can't go wrong, if they don't feel right, then you didn't spend too much. Much better than ruining your expensive everyday wearers.

As far as gloves go, that soaked feeling goes away shortly. As for dirt.. no big deal, If I am going out with the wife somewear, I'll try to keep them super clean with nitriles in the days leading upto. Otherwise, it's just working hands.

 

[RJSakowski]

I’m getting new glasses this year, and will have a pair of prescription safety glasses made at the same time.

Old mechanic experience:

I can’t work in gloves, except when I’m welding or washing parts, and even then they annoy me. My hands are very large and the gloves make it impossible to feel what I’m doing—often my hands block my view and are fitting in places designed for much smaller hands. Yes, my hands get dirty. I do not brush swarf away with my fingers—I can show you two impressive scars that taught me that lesson. If a paint brush won’t brush it away, neither will your fingers.

The best thing for cleaning hands is the blue fiberglass “horsehair” air-conditioning filter material. I buy 6”x50-foot rolls of the stuff from McMaster, and cut off 6” squares to use as hand scrubbies. Combined with Dawn dish detergent, even stubborn grease comes off surprisingly well. It will not abrade the skin like dish scrubbies.

Rick “who does wear nitrile gloves when packing bearings and CV joints with moly-disulfide grease, however” Denney

I'm surprised that you use fiberglass pads for scrubbing your hands, Fiberglass fibers are some of the most insidious slivers. Scotch Brite pads have the same abrasive qualities without the fibers.

I use a water soluble hand cleaner like Gojo combined with a shot of Dawn to clean my hands. It contains ground walnut shell for an abrasive. I keep a gallon pump dispenser on my work sink and a half dozen pumps will take off the most stubborn oil and grease. I work it well into my hands before washing. Then a final shot of Dawn to remove traces of the hand cleaner.

When working on the cars or tractors, I keep a second dispenser out by the barn for a pre-clean out there. With a water rinse, it removes enough of the oil/grease that I can come into the house for a final clean without transferring the crud to doorknobs and the like.

 

[RJSakowski]

Some 55 years ago, I was drilling out the rivets on a ball joint under my wife's car and a small steel sliver fell into my eye and lodged on the cornea. We made a trip to the ER when a freshly minted intern tried unsuccessfully to remove it with a hypodermic needle. The pain persisted and out of desperation, I held a large horseshoe magnet as close as I could get it to my eye and it pulled the sliver out. Pain was gone almost instantly.

A few years later, I had some grinding dust lodge in the same eye. This time, I went to an ophthalmologist and he used a microscope that made the bit of dust look like a boulder. He quickly removed the grit. I told him about the magnet solution and he cautioned me to never do that as it could embed the sliver deeper in the cornea and do more damage.

A final caution regarding slivers in the eyes. As a result from one or both of those incidents, I have scarring my cornea that results in ghost images in that eye. My newly acquired bifocals correct it to a certain extent but the better solution is to avoid the situation in the first place.

 

[BGHansen]

Not adding anything that hasn't been said above, but I usually wear nitrile gloves when running my Tormach CNC mill. I'll also wear them about 50/50 when milling ferrous stock (especially stainless) on the Bridgeport. I can't recall ever wearing them at the lathe.

I'm missing the top two digits of my right index finger. It wasn't a shop accident, but was stupidity on my part regardless. I was splitting wood with a hydraulic splitter on the back of a Massey 35. Problem was, I was loading and someone else was running the controls. I was setting a log in place when they ran the ram into my finger. Yup, you would likely not run a stamping press where you were loading and someone else was running the controls.

I happened to be at the GM Oklahoma City plant on a visit when a guy twisted his left index finger off on a drill press. He was scrapping aluminum wheels; drilling holes in the wheels for guaranteed leaks when he caught the edge of a glove and wrapped his finger around the bit. I visited him in the hospital to give him my experience so he had a reality check.

I also worked at the Lansing Grand River Assembly plant which was building Cadillac CTS models at the time. A team member was putting wheels on the car one lug at a time in repair mode. He was wearing gloves running an impact at probably around 135 Nm. He didn't notice that he'd wedged the tip of his glove in between the wheel hole and socket. Pulled the trigger on the impact and took the finger off. I went to "counsel" him in the hospital also.

My accident happened on 11/24/1991, finger was amputated on 11/27/1991. I maybe got 3 hours of sleep a night for a month as every pulse felt like a hammer blow. I recall sitting at work after Christmas and realizing, "Hey, the last 5 minutes I wasn't thinking about how much my finger hurt". It took 5-6 weeks for my swelling to go down, that's when the pain started to subside.

To the OP, great question! After what I went through 31+ years ago, I'd rather risk the pain of a sliver or two than lose another digit. So why do I wear nitrile gloves at the Tormach and Bridgeport? Because I NEVER get my fingers ANYWHERE NEAR A ROTATING spindle! My hope would be the nitrile gloves would shred, but I'm anal about keeping my fingers clear. Stay safe!

Bruce

 

[great white]

I’m getting new glasses this year, and will have a pair of prescription safety glasses made at the same time.

Old mechanic experience:

I can’t work in gloves, except when I’m welding or washing parts, and even then they annoy me. My hands are very large and the gloves make it impossible to feel what I’m doing—often my hands block my view and are fitting in places designed for much smaller hands. Yes, my hands get dirty. I do not brush swarf away with my fingers—I can show you two impressive scars that taught me that lesson. If a paint brush won’t brush it away, neither will your fingers.

The best thing for cleaning hands is the blue fiberglass “horsehair” air-conditioning filter material. I buy 6”x50-foot rolls of the stuff from McMaster, and cut off 6” squares to use as hand scrubbies. Combined with Dawn dish detergent, even stubborn grease comes off surprisingly well. It will not abrade the skin like dish scrubbies.

Rick “who does wear nitrile gloves when packing bearings and CV joints with moly-disulfide grease, however” Denney

I use the surgical scrubbies from Lee Valley:

These things are awesome for hand cleaning (as they're intended to be). The little bristles even get right down in the fingerprints and skin crevices. Clean right up under the nail and cuticles. Reusable and they seem to last forever. Pretty gentle on the skin too.

I highly recommend them. Cheap enough to give 'em a try too!

 

[RJSakowski]

I use the surgical scrubbies from Lee Valley:

These things are awesome for hand cleaning (as they're intended to be). The little bristles even get right down in the fingerprints and skin crevices. Clean right up under the nail and cuticles. Reusable and they seem to last forever. Pretty gentle on the skin too.

I highly recommend them. Cheap enough to give 'em a try too!

Great lead! I've been looking for something like that for some time now. Those stainless steel brushes are just too hard on my hands.

 

[RJSakowski]

Not adding anything that hasn't been said above, but I usually were nitrile gloves when running my Tormach CNC mill. I'll also wear them about 50/50 when milling ferrous stock (especially stainless) on the Bridgeport. I can't recall ever wearing them at the lathe.

I'm missing the top two digits of my right index finger. It wasn't a shop accident, but was stupidity on my part regardless. I was splitting wood with a hydraulic splitter on the back of a Massey 35. Problem was, I was loading and someone else was running the controls. I was setting a log in place when they ran the ram into my finger. Yup, you would likely not run a stamping press where you were loading and someone else was running the controls.

I happened to be at the GM Oklahoma City plant on a visit when a guy twisted his left index finger off on a drill press. He was scraping aluminum wheels; drilling holes in the wheels for guaranteed leaks when he caught the edge of a glove and wrapped his finger around the bit. I visited him in the hospital to give him my experience so he had a reality check.

I also worked at the Lansing Grand River Assembly plant which was building Cadillac CTS models at the time. A team member was putting wheels on the car one lug at a time in repair mode. He was wearing gloves running an impact at probably around 135 Nm. He didn't notice that he'd wedged the tip of his glove in between the wheel hole and socket. Pulled the trigger on the impact and took the finger off. I went to "counsel" him in the hospital also.

My accident happened on 11/24/1991, finger was amputated on 11/27/1991. I maybe got 3 hours of sleep a night for a month as every pulse felt like a hammer blow. I recall sitting at work after Christmas and realizing, "Hey, the last 5 minutes I wasn't thinking about how much my finger hurt". It took 5-6 weeks for my swelling to go down, that's when the pain started to subside.

To the OP, great question! After what I went through 31+ years ago, I'd rather risk the pain of a sliver or two than lose another digit. So why do I wear nitrile gloves at the Tormach and Bridgeport? Because I NEVER get my fingers ANYWHERE NEAR A ROTATING spindle! My hope would be the nitrile gloves would shred, but I'm anal about keeping my fingers clear. Stay safe!

Bruce

My Dad's oldest friend lost the three middle fingers and first knuckles in the palm in his right hand to a punch press working at Sunbeam in Chicago. It put an end to his working career. There were no two handed operator controls in those days.

The Tormach is great in that in order to change a tool, you have to open the cabinet which deactivates the spindle motor. I make it a habit to leave the door open when using my dial indicator or when I am manually tapping. The only down side is banging my head on the door. I did get 40 stitches in the fingers and thumb on my right hand from a table saw when I was 18. My Dad's saw had the power switch on the motor base and you had to reach over the saw to shut it off. Since then, I have been super cautious about securing my fingers whenever my table saw is running.

 

[Flynth]

When you wear prescription, you should order prescription safety glasses. While you can spend lots, you can also try the online cheaper alternatives, for the price, you can't go wrong, if they don't feel right, then you didn't spend too much. Much better than ruining your expensive everyday wearers.

As far as gloves go, that soaked feeling goes away shortly. As for dirt.. no big deal, If I am going out with the wife somewear, I'll try to keep them super clean with nitriles in the days leading upto. Otherwise, it's just working hands.

I just assumed I wouldn't be able to get prescription safety glasses for astigmatism. I did try long time ago and I couldn't. Checking now it seems some companies claim they do offer it. So I might buy them if I find a design that looks like it will not fog up too easily. Those I found just now look completely enclosed. That's good for safety, not for ventilation.

I've managed to ruin my everyday wearers only once in probably 6 years + of fairly frequent shop use. I use a face shield for grinding and a helmet for welding and oxy-fuel. But I must have got some diamond paste on my hands which I transferred onto a glasses cleaning cloth... Long story short in few days I had two areas on my glasses that looked sanded... I think it cost me about $100 to swap the lenses and the bits that go over the ears were also replaced as they were worn quite a bit from last 2 years of use. I tend to replace my glasses every 2 years, but I couldn't find a pair I would like and it fited me at the same time in a couple of local opticians so I decided to keep current ones for longer.

That soaked feeling does go away, but it must be something with the way my skin reacts to it. If I wear those nitrile gloves for an hour or two, not a big deal, maybe even a day is fine, but a couple of days in a row and my skin gets pretty bad (reddish, dry, definitely not good). So I use them as last resort. Likewise with various abrasive hand cleaning products that are the only thing that works well to clean machine grease and grime. Regarding "working hands", I guess it's personal preference. Nothing wrong with that if you don't mind it.